totalBarça is pleased to announce that it has contributed its 10th donation to UNICEF in the amount of $500 via The totalBarca Project. This brings our tally to $5,000 in a span of just over two years.

We could not be more proud of the culés, partners, and staff that make up the totalBarça community. We hope you will all continue to support this site and its vision to support such meaningful projects as UNICEF.

We are 5 years old today. totalBarça is 5. Yet, it feels like it has been five decades. So many things, good and bad, have happened within the last half-decade at FC Barcelona. And ultimately, at totalBarça. The site/community/blog/homebase – whatever we want to call it – still remains true to its original objectives. Namely, being a central destination for all culés to come share their joys and sorrows of FC Barcelona.

Yesterday, the FC Barcelona board agreed to extend the club’s partnership with UNICEF until 2016. The deal was only extended to such date as this is when club elections are held and generally major agreements are not executed past the current board’s term. As has been the agreement for some time, FC Barcelona will donate 1.5 million euros to joint projects that are aimed at promoting education and sport in areas with children in need. As has been the case some years now, UNICEF will remain on the back of the Barça uniform.

Exactly one year ago, totalBarça set out as a team and fan community to fulfill a vision known as The totalBarça Project. Today, on totalBarça’s fourth birthday, we continue to pursue this and show our true colours by supporting the values that are Barça.

totalBarça is pleased to announce that it has contributed its fourth donation to UNICEF in the amount of $500 via The totalBarca Project. This brings our tally to $2,000 in a short span of just nine months!

On September 29, 2012, Central Park in New York City will be the venue of “Global Festival”, a charity concert featuring headliners Foo Fighters, K’Naan, and Neil Young. Happening simultaneously with the United Nations General Assembly, this event aims to bring awareness to the “Global Poverty Project”, an organization aimed at fighting extreme poverty around the world. The FCB Foundation, through their partnerships with UNICEF and the Bill & Melinda Gate Foundation, will be present at the event assisting in whichever way possible and setting up audiovisual message boards. FC Barcelona will use its vast media power and channels to create awareness prior to the concert and by attracting people to the event. One cannot simply purchase tickets to the event, but rather spots are earned through direct action. The website for “Global Festival” lists a series of direct initiatives people can participate in to help those living in poverty. The more direct action performed results in more probability one is selected in the ticket draw.

As some (if not all) of you have noticed, the comments to some of the pieces we post are getting, well, a little out of hand. This sort of things makes it difficult for a site like ours to remain credible and respected by readers and other interested stakeholders. We do the best we can with moderation but things slip by every now and again due to manpower and to be honest, we really don’t think it’s a good thing if we have to continually babysit the totalBarça community. Especially, when it’s a community that is supposed to be respectful and for the common love and support of FC Barcelona.

FC Barcelona, through their partnership with UNICEF have aided the development of a international quality standards laboratory to test blood samples from infants exposed to HIV infection in Swaziland.

The new facility, situated at the Mbabane Government Hospital in Swaziland, is equipped with high-tech ‘polymerase chain reaction’ machines, which allow the Ministry of Health to test blood samples of infants locally. It has the capacity to test nearly 100 per cent of blood samples collected from infants across the country.

A friend of totalBarca, Sam from the UK, who is also a proud Socio, forwarded us an official response that he received from FC Barcelona’s OAB (Supporter Services Office) with regards to why FCB members were not notified of the new shirt sponsorship arrangement. There may not be clear answers in the following communiqué from OAB, but a special thanks to Sam for sharing it with everyone.

Please note that this information is provided to help with creating and sharing an understanding and not to provide any sort of position.